You are using "dominant" some places where you should use "homozygous". I think there are some web sites and maybe even books that started this.Quote:
Originally Posted by guambomb832
Pastel is a co-dominant mutation by definition because the heterozygous pastels and homozygous pastels (aka super pastel) are both mutations but don't look the same. Pastel doesn't change from co-dominant to dominant if you are looking at a super pastel. The mutation is still co-dominant, what changes is the genotype from heterozygous (regular pastels) to homozygous (super pastel).
A super pastel produces all pastels bred to a normal because of the definition of homozygous; having a matched pair of the gene you are talking about. Because both of the super pastel's copies of the gene at the pastel locus are the versions with the pastel mutation it can only pass the pastel mutation to its offspring. It has no normal for pastel versions to give.
Now pinstripe is a dominant mutation because the heterozygous and homozygous mutant animals look the same, the mutant pinstripe appearance. The vast majority of the pinstripes produced so far are heterozygous pinstripe but the mutation type is still dominant regardless of if your individual pinstripe is het pinstripe or homozygous pinstripe. It’s the genotype (heterozygous, homozygous) that changes between individuals but the mutation type (recessive, co-dominant, dominant) is a property of the mutation and is constant (at least relative to normal).